No Hooves, No Problem For Teenager Who Wins First Race After Practicing On Wooden Horse

Thirteen-year-old Olivia Tubb got her first win as a jockey in a pony race at Cheltenham recently after practicing on a wooden horse her father built for her.

The Daily Express reported that Tubb's parents couldn't afford to buy her a horse of her own (although they do routinely make a nearly 200-mile roundtrip drive to a farm where she borrows a pony to participate in Pony Club). Her father, an admissions officer at Southampton University, put together the wooden horse in about a month of working in the evenings. He even included bungees that would give Olivia a sense of realistic movement to the horse's head.

Olivia has been riding since she was six and used the wooden horse, named Troy, as a way to develop her muscles on days when she couldn't make it to the barn. She remains hopeful that she will one day become a professional jockey.